


The Truth Is

by yikesyies



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety, Comfort fic, First Day of School, Gen, but just a warning, david is such a good dad god, school fic, talks about past trauma and abuse so its never explicitly happening, this is just max trying to yeet the fuck out of his problems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-07-19 11:54:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19973641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yikesyies/pseuds/yikesyies
Summary: Max just needs either everyone to get off his damn case, or someone to hear him out. Whichever happens, it needs to happen soon.





	1. Leaving

**Author's Note:**

> i am NOT well but i am writing so thats all i can really ask for lmao
> 
> school approaches and i thought id make this lil fic to help me get through the hell weeks to come

There are a few things you need to know before you judge Max on why exactly he was ditching his first day of middle school.

The first would be that Max does NOT care about Nikki and Neil. Not in the sense that like, he’d cry over them if they decide to fuck off and head their separate ways. It was inevitable, as he knew, because growing up meant that they’d get distracted by whatever cloudy wish pushes each of them to follow a fruitless dream that somehow makes one of them end up in jail, the other extremely rich and famous, or stuck in the same goddamn town they’ve always been in.

It didn’t even have to be something big that divided them or drove them apart; God knows they lost Nikki on the daily the few weeks out of camp in their little town, weaving through the thicket of trees by the lame little stream that surrounded the east side of the town, following every stray dog she could. He just knew that it was bound to happen, so there was no point in crying over spilled milk, shedding tears over something so trivial, etc., etc. 

The second thing you need to know is that Max doesn’t get scared. He’s been through the toughest shit you could think of: child abandonment, foster homes, house fires, getting caught up in an international scandal because the owner of his camp was a goddamn criminal. The list could go on and on. He was used to bullshit, he expected everything to be shit, and there wasn’t any shit left on this fuck of a planet that could scare him into a weeping little baby that needed something like his bumblefuck friends to comfort him.

The third thing, the most important thing that you need to know about Max, is that he is a liar. A damn good one, too. He managed to convince David daily that he was worth adopting, after all. What person in their right mind would do something like that if he wasn’t fucking spectacular at pretending he was good for something?

Truth is, he was _terrified_ of middle school. Specifically, middle school in the town of Canopy. Canopy was a small town in what was left of the rural Pacific Northwest; a sleepy Oregon town that only ever saw exciting adventures in the curious little summer camp that tucked itself away in the outskirts of their town. It was a mile wide, and filled with a little under five thousand people. Not enough to warrant there being anything but a spiffy gas station at the end of town to attract passerby on Highway 1, but enough to warrant a school scandal because a couple teachers had sticky fingers when it came to handling the art program’s financial budget, which seemed to dwindle by the second.

He had never experienced anything so intimate, so _secluded_ before, and the cabin fever was really getting to him.

“Max? _Max,”_ Neil said, snapping his fingers in front of his face. Nikki waved her wands frantically from behind him, hopping to get past Neil’s gangly frame.

Goddamn. It was all really fucking with him to the point where he hadn’t even noticed they were still there.

“Maximillion! Maximus! Maxie! Hey!” She called out with every jump, her hands a whizzing blur as Max finally snapped out of his daze and scowled, shoving his hands in his pocket as he gave Neil a look.

“What? That supposed to scare me? Your ‘unbridled rage’ is nothing but talk, you know that, right?” Neil chastised, handing him a folder and binder. “Anyways, don’t be nervous, you’ll survive school. I can see you disassociating to the moon and back, like David said you would.”

Max blinked, before realizing somehow, his backpack’s open zipper caused most of his materials to fall on the blacktop trailing behind him as the trio walked to school. He’d been so preoccupied by contemplating his sudden life change from big city to small town that most of his stationary was now a shoddy path that looked somewhat like a bread crumb trail. “Oh shit. Uh, fuck. Would you guys help me clean this shit up instead of freaking the fuck out? I’m fine, David’s stupid, and Nikki, _please_ get my fucking pencil out of your mouth.”

Nikki chewed contentedly on the only genuine number two pencil Max had, and shook her head. “No can do, Max-o. It’s got my spit on it. It’s mine now.”

With a quick nod, Neil agreed. “She’s right. It’s irrational and just about the most undignified or legal method of obtaining property and wealth, but playground rules don’t really give two shits about that.”

“Will you please just-fuck, there’s just so many pens on the ground,” Max groaned, flushing profusely as his anxiety filled him with knee-buckling embarrassment as other students bustled past them, entering the somewhat shoddy-looking establishment that was Campbell Middle School. It was a grey building that claimed to have once been eggshell white, but was quickly slapped with an impenetrable layer of grime that not even bleach could strip away. The windows were streaked with dirt, the steps were just unbarred concrete, and the blacktop surrounding the school looked like it hadn’t been repaired in decades. It was, as all educational establishments should be, about to fall apart.

Still chewing his only pencil, Nikki scooped up dozens of pens in both her hands all at once, completing the task in one fell swoop, and dumped them all in Max’s open backpack with a triumphant drop. Neil picked up any stray sheets of paper and neatly returned them in the refused binder. He tucked the inside Max’s bag, and pat him on the head.

“Why did David give you so many pens? I mean, I’m no protester to the mighty pen; it’s just, does he expect you to be writing fucking scientific journals on your first day of sixth grade?”

Max stood up, dusting his pants off in a huff, the debris shining in the early morning sun that peeked out from in between the leaves beside them. “It’s called David’s a fucking PTA mom and made me go to Target every single day this last week JUST to get my school supplies. For the next six years of my goddamn middle and high school career, apparently.”

He threw the hood of his worn blue sweater over his head, and looked up at the decrepit school with a mixture of disdain, terror, and uncomfortable worming feeling that seemed to tug at his heart and make his stomach churn with more energy he’d ever felt. It scared the shit out of him.

“Can...can we just go inside, please?” Max asked, no bite left in his voice. He walked past the two, not waiting for an answer, and shuffled up the stairs and into their first day as middle school students.

Neil stammered. “Jesus, Max, wait up!” He shouted, causing both him and Nikki to jog lightly towards the entrance. He turned to Nikki, already somehow out of breath at the slightest physical activity, and threw his hands incredulously. “Can you believe him? I mean, I know transferring schools is hard and all, but we had to do it too, at some point. It’s not like everyone expects to grow up in a shithole like Canopy. We all ended up here somehow.”

“Yeah, for us it was because our parents boned and ended up having a kid!” Nikki agreed, sprinting ahead of him. Neil sighed heavily.

“I regret ever phrasing it like that. I wish so hard that you’d just let me never hear that again.”

Nikki smiled mischievously. “It’s _your_ fault for telling me why our parents were having what everyone called a shotgun wedding. It was so much more boring than I thought it was going to be; no shootouts or showdowns or anything!”

She threw open the right door that stood at the top of the short escalation towards the school’s entrance, and held it open for her step-brother, chivalrous as ever to annoy the hell out of him. Max watched fondly, though he made sure not to smile as he watched Neil blush in embarrassment as Nikki continued to talk about their parents’ sketchy circumstances around joining in holy matrimony, and a little bit of those swirling thoughts dissolved in his mind. Maybe he’d get through today. Maybe he could make David less annoying with a good report on a day for once.

“Well, if it isn’t the three amigos!” Nurf shouted out, clamoring through the entrance with such volume that all nerds in the immediate vicinity, Neil included, jumped like a cat sprayed with a water bottle. He walked right up to an already remorseful Max and gave him a somewhat affectionate noogie on his head, tangling his curls further as he held him in a viper-like grip. “Or as I like to call you, Huey, Dewey, and _Loser!”_ He finished, shoving Max slightly as he let him loose from his grip with a satisfied laugh. Max stumbled from the sudden force, but stood upright almost immediately. Nikki and Neil could have sworn they could see the walls put up right in front of him, whatever fondness they might have spotted in the lack of scowl he had before completely vanished. 

“Don’t put your fucking hands on me, Nurf. Take your anger issues out on some fucking baby that’ll actually take your shit or something. I am _not_ in the fucking mood for whatever fucked up version of fun you like to have during the school year.”

“Maxwell, such harsh words to a dear friend!” A voice trilled from the hall. A familiar lover of theater slid down the rickety stairwell that led to the second floor of the definitely-not-up-to-code building, and there landed a very dolled up Preston Goodplay, wearing a white cashmere turtleneck, red velvet beret, and matching color shorts. His sneakers were the only part of his obviously loud outfit that stuck out like a sore thumb, being obviously well-worn converse that seemed to have been around since Preston could walk. Following him were Nerris, Dolf, and Harris, all wearing seemingly normal outfits compared to their lead act. Nerris had no ears or hat, Harris no cards or gloves, and Dolf was wearing a striped t-shirt, cargo shorts, although somehow still a mustache.

Max tensed. Did everyone that went to Camp Fuck-All live in Canopy? An even more uncomfortable feeling snuck its way into his mind, completely unwelcome and accompaniment to the orchestra of feelings and thoughts swarming around his already buzzing mind. Not just a hopeful thought, but something akin to gratitude. Towards what, he wasn’t quite sure yet.

This was all starting to piss him off.

“Nerris! Dolf!” Nikki shouted, hurtling towards her other friends with worrying speed. Nerris, who wore a D&D shirt, a crystal necklace, and golden-leaved headband in their hair, welcomed her with open arms, and was met with a force not to far from that of an excited puppy. An excited, 4 ft. puppy that jumped wholly into their arms without hesitation. It was a wonder they were both still standing.

“Harris, if you try to pull that shit with me, I’ll find your magic wand and break it in half without hesitation,” Neil warned as Harris walked over with open arms, a big dopey grin on his face. Nurf crossed his arms with a smirk that Max wished he could punch off his face, but because he knew his arms would probably break against his dumbass jaw or something, so he just glowered at him and shoved his hands in his pocket as Harris pulled Neil into what he claimed was an entirely unwanted hug.

“What? You want a fucking medal? Prize? God forbid you want an _apology,”_ Max practically spat, his attempted deadpan a bit too emotional at the end of his insult. “You can’t just noogie someone and expect them to think it’s a token of your fucking affection. We don’t all speak ‘anger issues’, Nurf.”

“We don’t all speak ‘whiny punk bitch that needs to get more than four hours of sleep at night’ either, and yet here we are, _friend,”_ Nurf retorted, patting him roughly on the head and walking past him as the bell rang ceremoniously, the pounding of its shrill shriek signifying that the day had officially begun. The greeting ended, the friends scattered, and Max was left to follow Nikki and an exhausted Neil, who had to free himself from a very awkward hug with Harris whom he absolutely cannot stand, and then free Nerris from an incredibly clingy Nikki.

“Hey Max, we have to pick up our schedules over here!” Nikki informed him before zipping over to the one of many lines that were set up in the main hall to hand out the handful of students at CMS their set class schedule for the rest of the year. Max found the line that corresponded with his last name, since they were in alphabetical order, and found himself alone once again, finding his friends were all scattered among the trail of kids that lined up in front of the dinky plastic tables, and looked ahead to find his line manned by a very tired, very familiar eighth grader that was handing out the schedules.

“Here’s your schedule or whatever,” Erid sighed, handing a random paper to the next middle school student who hadn’t even finished saying their name before having one shoved into their chest and then ushered away by the bustling line. Max grit his teeth.

“Okay, so fucking everyone lived here before I got dropped off in the middle of fucking nowhere. That’s cool. That’s fucking _fantastic_ ,” He muttered, fuming silently as the line shifted forward ever so slightly.

There is something else you have to know about Max before you understand what he does next. A truth that predated his middle school enrollment, his cabin fever caused by living with David, even predating having ever been to Camp Campbell. A truth that Max would deny until his last, almost certainly sarcastic and biting, breath, and would take to an early grave if he could keep it secret. It was a truth that only came to life because it affected him so that it was the limp in his walk that he hadn't realized he carried at times, or the flinch he reacts with a sudden movement, or the headache he got when everything was just so _loud._

He’d never had friends before. His parents didn’t really let him. He was to go to school, come straight home, do his homework, and hope to God his existence wasn’t a burden to them. If it was, he was to pay for it. There was always a price for everything in his first family; you paid for misdeeds, you paid for forgetting chores, you paid for losing assignments, you paid for wanting affection, you paid for refusing affection, and you paid a hefty price for outright disobedience. Not in money, but in time, in food, in getting to leave the house. Max had to give, and give, and give, and never got anything in return. 

Never got parents at an awards ceremony where he was secretly proud of his Reading Certificate and knew his parents could care less. Never got picked up when he scraped his knee after falling off the monkey bars and was just patched up and sent back to class. Never got a response when he’d act up in class and the teacher called his parents to relay his crimes to them, so they’d leave a voicemail that he knew would result in another fine at home.

Max’s truth is that he’d spent a great deal of his life believing the world only wanted to take from you and that it was a great, big, shit hole that only cared when you could benefit it. So seeing the kids that helped teach him otherwise all at once made him feel like he didn’t deserve to finally receive. He was terrified of his middle school days because it was so secluded, so isolated, so filled with friends and family that actually cared…

It was safe. He felt safe, and he didn’t deserve to. Not after everything he’d done to lash out when the worst had been done to him. Not after finding out the same was basically done to his dad, David, and he turned out to be his polar opposite. 

Max just needed to get the hell out of there.

So he stepped out of line, breath unsteady and fists clenched. He pulled his hoodie over his head the best he could, and just started walking. Walking past the unknowing glances of his best friends, of the campers he knew would stop him if they knew he was running away again.

“Always fucking running,” Max said shakily, and pulled the sleeves of his sweater over his hands with a yank. He looked at the main entrance doors head on, heart pounding in his chest louder than a door slam, over and over, the blood rushing in his ears like a panicked shout. They rolled closer, his feet nonstop and his breathing threatening to hiccup, until they swung wide open, and he froze in his spot.

“Ah, shit, they’re all in line already!” A redheaded child yelled, followed by a younger redheaded kid, probably a sibling. She squeaked, grabbing their backpack like a toddler. Their older sibling smacked their teeth and just grabbed her hand forcefully.

“Hurry up then!” They rushed past Max, shoving him as they bustled forward, and Max took a deep breath, not having realized he’d held it for so long. 

He shook his head, huffing angrily. “Stop psyching yourself out, dumbass. Get the fuck out of here.”

He slipped past the already closing door, and sprinted for the trees surrounding him, the door shutting with a clean click.


	2. Returning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max is doing just fine, actually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do i only update at unholy hours of the morning? ye s apparently

Max settled on a patch of grass, spotted with the bright noon light that spattered from under the foliage above him. He pulled out his lunch box as he sat himself down on his sweater, using it as a somewhat picnic blanket as he found his PB&J with the crusts cut off and took a bite out of it. He took in the tall trees that loomed over him as he chewed pensively, looking at the needles that stuck out from the branches around him, at the moss that covered the sides of trunks, and then up at the sky, dusted with light clouds that drifted behind him.

This was a familiar sight to him. Being alone was something rare during his time at Camp Campbell, so he’d often sneak out during lunch hour to just sit in the woods and think about everything and anything he could. He’d think about how much he wanted to just get the fuck out of that camp and be anywhere else; be it in the city, on the streets, in jail for all he fucking cared. Just away from annoying kids that were trying to enjoy themselves in what was an obvious scam, away from all the stupid illegal shit that’d been putting all their lives in danger, and just  _ away _ . 

And he’d also think about the same kids that became his first friends. How Nikki, even if she’s running her last brain cell to the ground by dedicating it solely to petting every feral animal in sight, would do anything for him if he was in danger, or hurt, or even just spiraling mentally. How she’d give him a suffocating hug that he’d refuse the entire time, and tell him to just curse and swear about whatever he needed to get out. How Neil would just listen to him when he’d drag him into the woods with him, and how he wouldn’t say a damn thing when he started to break in his voice and sob while he spoke. He just listened when he needed him to, and gave him the cold hard facts he needed to hear to sober him up.

He’d think about that offer David made near the end of summer, while everyone was making arrangements to go home. About how it took everything in him to not laugh in his face, to mock him, insult him, or flat out refuse, because for once in his life someone was genuinely serious about wanting to take care of him; and it scared the ever loving fuck out of him. He still thought about it now, as he looked back on all the panic and fuss that happened once he told David he wanted him to adopt him; how David fretted by baby-proofing his apartment and how many papers had to be signed and how many hands he had to shake and not bite. He thought about his first night spent at David’s place, in his own bed with comforters the same baby blue as his favorite sweater, and though he’d never tell a living soul this, he thought about how he cried in disbelief in that same bed that same evening, silent and unheard like he’d had to learn to do in his previous life.

In that patch of forest, an island of thought and seeking to a young ten year old boy, he thought about how worried David must be by now. He thought back on his navigation courses David taught to him offhandedly during waiting rooms throughout the adoption process, little tid-bits on how to find north without a compass dropped as they both anxiously waited to face their social worker. He strained to remember the nuggets of wisdom his dad dropped on what trees grew around Canopy, or what animals took up life under their shelter. Watching little puffs of white carry the seeds of the very trees that eluded, he gave a bitter sigh and laid down on the grass.

“Fuck,” Max said to himself quietly, swallowing his last bite. “Even with all the shit David’s taught me, I’m still really fucking lost.”

Looking up at the sky didn’t help much, since he had no clue what direction the wind was blowing, really. Moss was said in many urban legends to point north, and in others south, though David said most of the time it was the former. He glanced at the tree above him, which held moss behind his head, and then to the tree next to him, which held no moss in sight.

“So much for that.”

There was no energy left in him to get up and climb one of the branches that might have been in his reach. He purposely ditched the sack of survival supplies David had packed for him because not only was it weighing down his backpack, he found it dumb as shit to take navigation supplies to school with him.

“Fucking fantastic. Look how well that worked out, Max,” he muttered. He looked back at the clouds above him, wispy like cellophane wrap caught in the breeze, and realized the sun was right above him, shining through the transparent bodies like a laser through glass.

“Shit, is it noon? Or midday? Or whatever the fuck?” Max panicked, sitting up suddenly, then regretting it as the blood rush made him feel nauseous. He scrambled for his phone, which he’d put on airplane mode the moment he could, and found it to have been closer to one.

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I’ve been gone from town for four hours. Not just gone from school, but out of fucking _ town,”  _ Max groaned, dragging his hands down his face in distress. “If David hasn’t called for the fucking SWAT team to find me, he sure as hell knows I’m gone.”

Max stood up, and stumbled unexpectedly. He stepped back to right himself.

“What the fuck? Why am I...Oh. I guess I haven’t eaten since last night? That sandwich was my first meal today,” Max pondered aloud, rubbing his forehead. “Or really drank any water, either? And I didn’t refill my stupid ass thermos bottle this morning.”

He looked past the trees that lined up in a perplexing pattern, intertwining and winding in front of him like an organic labyrinth. 

He swore, and kicked at the dirt. “God, I really did not think this through.”

Stooping back down and grumbling in frustration as he felt a headache come on, Max packed his backpack up again with the lunchbox and other stationary he’d taken out. He slung it over his shoulder, picked up his sweater and tied it around his waist, and took a shaky breath. 

“You got yourself into this mess, and you’re gonna get yourself the fuck out of it, Max. Before you make shit worse again.” He scolded softly. He stood for another second, looking ahead at the forest that looked the same wherever he turned, and felt a hot sensation burn at his eyes while his frustration turned into doubt, slowly fading into a pit in his stomach just like the trees that faded in the distance.

“Fuck, what am I gonna do?” He whispered, his voice cracking.

  
  


David was going bonkers. Absolutely bonkers. 

“What do you  _ mean  _ he’s been missing for six periods?” He shrieked, clapping a hand over his mouth in horror as he clutched the house phone to his face like it was his lifeline. 

Gwen woke up from her impromptu nap on the couch, which just meant that she’d been running herself on four hours of collective sleep for the past two days and the moment she hit the couch she lost consciousness. Once she gathered her senses, she looked at David in bewilderment.

“Max has  _ what?” _ She exclaimed, turning to face him from the couch, no sign of grogginess in sight. David motioned his hand frantically, as if trying to motion the entire story to her in a sign language from another world. She stood up and walked towards him. “Use your words, David!”

“Max  _ apparently  _ has been gone for  _ six periods of his school day!”  _ David scolded into the phone, seething with rage; which for David meant he was being incredibly passive-aggressive to the vice principal who was currently on the line. The squeak from the other end on the phone indicated that it was noted. “I don’t know  _ how  _ exactly he could have been missing for practically the entire day that no responsible staff member or adult on the premises could know, but obviously it’s happened, and now  _ no one knows where my son is!”  _

Gwen grabbed his shoulder, gave it a quick squeeze, and looked at David with a calm expression. His red nose and watery eyes looked back. “Pass me the phone, guy. Put on your shoes and figure out where the hell he’s gone. I’ll walk to the school in case he goes back.”

David sniffed, rubbing his nose. “O-okay! Yeah, I’ll go find him! Uh, I’ll get my phone and y-you  _ call  _ me if you see him, Gwen! ASAP!” He stammered, and bolted to his room. Gwen still held off on continuing the cellular conversation as she heard him rummaging through his belongings like a crazed piranha picking a bone clean, and came back with the phone in question as well as his wallet, his truck keys, and the crazed look of determination any father in primal parent mode had in this situation.

“Alright, David? David? Hey, guy?” Gwen called as he frantically laced up his boots. 

“Y-yeah?” He replied, his voice breaking as he was shedding a copious amount of tears. 

“You’ll find him. He’s eleven, there’s only so far his tiny fucking legs can take him,” She reassured with a succint nod at the end. He gave her a shaky smile, and then burst into a full sprint the moment the door was wide enough for him to leave. She put the phone back up to her ear as she walked over to close it.

“Ms. What’s Your Face?” She said, her voice sickly sweet. The woman on the other side of the call stammered.

_ “Er, Marzolini. Ms. Marzolini is the name?”  _ She corrected, her voice growing smaller by the second. Gwen scowled, pursing her lips and cocking her head.

“How the  _ fuck  _ do you lose an ENTIRE ELEVEN YEAR OLD STUDENT?” She shouted.

_ “M-Ma’am, we usually don’t lose track of students so quickly, it’s such a small school that we know our kids personally; a-and by name! B-but Maxwell  _ is  _ new and so many of his classmates didn’t seem to notice he was gone, and even mistook him for just being in the restroom during roll call, according to his teachers!” _

Gwen grit her teeth. “So you’re stupid as fuck and so is every single one of your staff members. Those were his friends, covering for the little shit, but you didn’t realize that because you’re an actual goddamn imbecile. Cool. Awesome. Hey, the next time a kid lies to you, why don’t you just give them straight fucking A’s, huh? Seems like they’re getting away with murder anyways, why not give them a little reward,  _ right _ ?” Gwen spat, before pausing and taking a long, deep breath. “I’m going to be calling the police to help us search since it’s practically been six hours since anyone’s last seen him. Whatever happens to him, if  _ anything  _ happens to him,  _ you’re responsible for it.  _ See you at the next PTA meeting!” She said sarcastically, the words biting and final.

The vice principal cleared her throat.  _ “Er, right! Of course. I completely understand, a-and see you and David at the next meeting. I hope David and you find Maxwell on your search quickly.” _

“I’m coming to the school right now to make sure I don’t miss him if he decides to come back. Maybe just stay in your office and out of the way and we might just find him!” She said, a bit of David’s passive aggressive tendency rubbing off on her. She hung up the house phone and flung it on the couch, and went to her room to grab her jacket, which already had her wallet and house keys in them. She then rushed to David’s room and found his own house keys still on his bed, just as she expected.

“Damnit, David, how the hell do you expect to get back inside if I’m not here one of these days?” She muttered under her breath as she swiped them and slung on her sandals, threw on her jacket, locked the doorknob and slammed the door behind her. 

Max wiped his eyes angrily, and made a decision. He grabbed his phone from his pocket, pausing the music he was listening to to soothe himself for the past twenty minutes. He turned off airplane mode, hoped to God the singular bar of signal he was getting was enough to save his life, and sent David his location. 

Or at least, he hoped he did, because right as he realized his phone was only on 1%, he’d pressed send, only to be met not with a confirmation his message sent, but to find that his phone was shutting down. 

“FUCK! Are you  _ fucking  _ kidding me right now? Even after I stoop so low as to ask my chucklefuck of a father to pick me up because I got myself lost in the woods like some  _ dumbass kid?”  _ He raged, slamming his phone on the ground. The case hit the soft forest floor with a thud, and Max fell to his knees once again, feeling utterly hopeless.

This is what deserved. All those years of hardening his heart, not letting anyone in, as a defense against what anyone person you could pick out of a crowd has gone through and he managed to fuck everything up just because he was scared of stability. What kind of idiot gets scared of letting people take care of him? Of being kind to him? Of actually  _ giving a shit _ ? A real big one, that’s what.

Max looked up at the sky, which had turned a bit more orange as the day dragged on. School was definitely over.

“I guess it only takes a small stupid idiot to make such a big mess,” He sobbed into his knees, clutching them tight.

David got his message.

Everyone within a 30 ft. radius heard his shriek as he realized Max had sent him a location message, and even if it wasn’t live, it was still  _ something.  _ All the officers in the police station he was currently in thank every possible god in the universe that they finally could do something to stop this grown man from sobbing like an infant in their station.

David furiously wrote down the actual coordinates listed from Max’s location ping, slid over the scrap piece of tissue he’d just blown his nose one that now held precious information, and look the officer helping him dead in the eye.

“I’m going to find my boy, whether you come or not,” He said, his voice even and void of any of the overwhelming emotion that incapacitated him before from making a proper missing person’s report. He grabbed his things and sprinted clear out of the station, eyes puffy from his crying and yet dead set with a fiery determination.

  
  


Max didn’t remember falling asleep. He hated waking up in places he didn’t recognize, and seeing the star-studded sky versus the roof of his fully furnished room threw him for quite a loop.

Max also didn’t remember it being nighttime. He sat up groggily, and dusted himself off as he stood up, slow from his slumber, until he froze at the sound of snapping twigs in the distance. He looked around in alarm.

“This is it. I’m about to get eaten by fucking wolves, and Nikki isn’t even here to enjoy watching,” Max whispered under his breath. The sound grew louder and quicker, as if whatever was looking for him, had just found him. He held his breath, grabbing tight on his sweater as if it was his last line of defense, and squeezed his eyes shut in pure terror.

“ _ Max? _ ”

His eyes flew open. He stayed silent, and waited to hear it again. A couple seconds passed.

“MAX!”

“Wow,” He whispered. “I guess the day’s finally come where I’m so fucking glad to hear David’s annoying voice.

“Oh, MAX!” David cried, finally coming into view. He shot straight towards him and engulfed him in a tight, protective embrace that Max never wanted to leave. This was what he’d feared he’d lost by making the mistake of running away again.

Any other time of his life, running away was the only solution he had. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain from removing himself from a terrible situation to find himself placed in a slightly better one; but this was different. He almost lost everything he’d learned to love, from the school that scared the shit out of him, to the friends that he definitely didn’t care about, to the town that drove him crazy…

And the dad that he loved oh so very much.

But he hadn’t lost the most important thing he’d gained in his life, after all. It was here. Home was here, scooping him up and grabbing his backpack frantically, before holding him tight as he jogged through the woods to get home. 

Max didn’t have to run away anymore. He was back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soBs i love protective david so much LET THIS MAN TAKE CARE OF HIS PROBLEM CHILD THANKS

**Author's Note:**

> i dont update consistently but feedback helps me stay on track, and comments abt just how you felt while reading really make my day. thank you<3
> 
> also yes i did write most of this at 3 in the morning and i dont have an outline its called Im A MESS


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